Feelings, thoughts and action

When you are depressed, a mass of negative thoughts race through your mind about

• yourself, such as "I am a bad person", "I can never do anything right" and "I am not good enough"
• other people, such as "I can't trust anyone else", "No one likes me", and "They are only out to harm me"
• the world and the future, such as "The world is evil and it will never be any different"

It is very important that you realise that your negative thoughts have nothing to do with reality. Negative thinking is a symptom of depression. Your negative thoughts put you in a bad mood and give you negative feelings.

Specific ways of thinking

Throughout your life, you develop specific ways of thinking. Your thoughts therefore actually become triggered according to a particular pattern, which we call your "personal pattern". When an important event occurs in your life, you determine your personal pattern more than you realise.

Let's look at an example: Perhaps you have experienced the break-up of an important relationship. In such a case, you trigger previous patterns and ideas. You trigger them even if you developed them a long time ago, during your childhood for example. If you trigger negative thoughts, you risk them taking yourself into a vicious circle of negative and depressive reactions.

Here are some typical negative thoughts:

• "My relationship has broken up because I am not good enough".
• "I am worthless".
• "There is nothing worth loving about me".

Link between thoughts and feelings

You can risk reinforcing your own negative feelings to the point where they become insurmountable. This is because there is a direct link between thoughts and feelings. We have illustrated this link in the box shown below:

The vicious circle of negative thoughts can become a trap. But you can learn to break it. You can do this by taking a step out of the circle. You can break the vicious circle by changing your thoughts and feelings. This is because you are so fortunate that you can be active and take part in your own healing process to get out of the depression.